Game # 19 August 12, 2010
Hurtin' Units lose 12-5
Team Record 14-3-2
Keogh Park- The week was another hot and humid one and for the first time this season I wore shorts to play a game. I actually wore shorts for the first time on Tuesday evening, when I subbed for the Lucky Stiffs and then again on Wednesday when I subbed for the Banshees. I have been a bit of a baseball slut this week, some people would call me a baseball whore, but I don't get paid for my services and I really just play for the pleasure of it. Whore? I don't think so...
I even managed to get a game in on Sunday at the T.O.T tournament, when my team Team Extreme was eliminated from the tournament. Mike and I had the pleasure of playing with JOE and the VOLCANOES in the semi-finals, only because 5 of the team's players were playing on a 40+ team at the same time. The Volcanoes didn't fair very well with the 5 subs they had picked up and they went down in a ball of flames...
This season I haven't subbed as much, but when I do get a call I don't like to refuse, unless I can't really make it. There are two reasons I don't turn down the invitation to sub. The first is, as a Captain, I have come to realize the difficulty in fielding a team night after night ( the Hurtin' Units have been great) and I know there are some teams in our league that have had some problems fielding a team, whether it's because of injuries, shift work or just unfortunate circumstances. I like to support the other teams and I hope that they will do the same for us when a sub or two is required. The second reason for subbing is...I like to play; I like to go out and work at getting better, although I think this week's play might not have been beneficial to me or our game last night. I actually encourage players to sub. I know we have some guys on the Units that get out for an extra game once in a while.
Last night we were missing Don C., Chris N., and Uncle Tom P., although some people would argue that the whole team took the night off...Of course I'm joking ...LOL.
Okay, I guess I've avoided the game for as long as I can, let's get to the nuts and bolts of what happened...I called this game a CLUNKER and Pauly called it “ICK”, I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it probably is some old English term for rubbish, but what ever you call it the results were not that great...
The lights in left field were not working again, this really frustrates me, to the point where I'm distracted in the game. The left fielders are basically defending themselves when the ball is hit in their direction and when the ball was thrown back in to the infield it was difficult for the infielders to track it coming in... I feel cheated when things are not working properly. This game was shortened by one inning, an inning that could have changed our fortunes, after all we did only lose by 7 runs, a number that this team is very capable of putting up in a single inning... Even if we are having a off night!
game had even started and we realized that the left field was not coming on, this bothered me from the start of the game... The town should rent some portable lighting for the field until they are sure the lights are working properly. I worry about the players in the field, lighting is affected everywhere on the field when one bank of lights is out it worries me that someone might get hurt... Some of the players in this league ( Rob McCarron, Cam Clark, etc.) hit hard line drives and I would hate to see anyone get hit by a ball off the bat of these guys...The days are getting shorter and this problem has been going on all season (it's August already), let's get these fixed before someone gets hurt...
Our game was a little sloppy, maybe we were to hard on ourselves based on how we have played most of the season. Maybe some of us still had a T.O.T tournament hangover, there were 8 ( I think it was 8) of us who played last weekend in the tournament.
In most of our games this season, when someone is having a rough game, the other players on the Units have picked up the slack and we have pulled through. However, in this game I think the number of guys struggling out weighed the number of guys having a good game.
There were early indications that this could be a rough night for the Hurtin' Units. The lights not all coming on was a start... Early in the game, Paul got hit in the chops (mouth area) by a ball that deflected off third base and bounced up and caught him around the mouth...Jens is playing with a pulled hamstring (a nice one with all the colours of the rainbow)... I hurt my wrist on Tuesday (on my throwing hand, really doesn't explain how I missed two ground balls hit right at me...D'oh!) and it was still sore on Thursday... The outfielders, Jens, Mike, Chris R., Tony and Jimmy Mac all had to deal with bad lighting, sure only the left field lights were out, but these lights cast lighting on the entire playing surface and when the entire field is not properly lit, this can be a problem for everyone...Al's new glove is taking a little bit longer to break in than expected, probably needs one of breaking in ways that were discussed at the Legion...Everybody has there little helpful tips... Saddle soap, glove oil, shaving cream, etc... Jerry was a bit upset with the Joints score keeping, we asked where the 7th run was and we were told to keep playing and then a runner comes home and that was the seventh, one more thing that seemed out of place on this night...
Boxscore:
Maybe there were other reasons for this unusual evening of baseball; I'm sure most of us are a little superstitious. Perhaps forces of the universe threw us into a state of unbalance on this evening. Athletes are a strange breed! When a team is going well, they will do things the same; wear the same socks, do not wash their jersey when on a streak and a list of other bizarre, quirky things to keep things going in the right direction. I mentioned before that I wore shorts, for the first time this season, to one of our games, maybe the shock of seeing my pale white chicken legs, through the guys off their games...I also changed to a different vehicle to come to the diamond...Today is Friday August 13th... and on Thursday evening there was even a meteor shower... Could all of these things have thrown us off our game? I say yes! We ( the Hurtin' Units team) are much better than we showed on Thursday evening and we will right the Unit ship as we make the final push toward the playoffs... Things may be a little bit rough for couple more weeks, but once everyone is back, our game will be where it was earlier in the season. I am looking forward to the stretch run and the playoffs... UNITS UNLIMITED!!
I even managed to get a game in on Sunday at the T.O.T tournament, when my team Team Extreme was eliminated from the tournament. Mike and I had the pleasure of playing with JOE and the VOLCANOES in the semi-finals, only because 5 of the team's players were playing on a 40+ team at the same time. The Volcanoes didn't fair very well with the 5 subs they had picked up and they went down in a ball of flames...
On Tuesday evening I subbed for the Stiffs and they were victorious against the Hottub Woodies by a score of 10-7. I was torn in this game. When I sub I like to play the best I can despite the name on the shirt and I did on Tuesday. I was torn because the Stiffs are one of the teams breathing down our collective necks in the standings. On Wednesday I subbed for the Banshees who were playing the Brew Jays, another team breathing down our necks.
I went out and gave a 110 percent in both games, but unfortunately the teams I wanted to win both lost... D'oh!! I haven't really subbed or substituted in very many games this season, not like last season. Last season I was definitely a baseball slut, sometimes calling the sub-controller and saying I was available... I probably could have used a bit of counseling.
This season I haven't subbed as much, but when I do get a call I don't like to refuse, unless I can't really make it. There are two reasons I don't turn down the invitation to sub. The first is, as a Captain, I have come to realize the difficulty in fielding a team night after night ( the Hurtin' Units have been great) and I know there are some teams in our league that have had some problems fielding a team, whether it's because of injuries, shift work or just unfortunate circumstances. I like to support the other teams and I hope that they will do the same for us when a sub or two is required. The second reason for subbing is...I like to play; I like to go out and work at getting better, although I think this week's play might not have been beneficial to me or our game last night. I actually encourage players to sub. I know we have some guys on the Units that get out for an extra game once in a while.
Last night we were missing Don C., Chris N., and Uncle Tom P., although some people would argue that the whole team took the night off...Of course I'm joking ...LOL.
The lights in left field were not working again, this really frustrates me, to the point where I'm distracted in the game. The left fielders are basically defending themselves when the ball is hit in their direction and when the ball was thrown back in to the infield it was difficult for the infielders to track it coming in... I feel cheated when things are not working properly. This game was shortened by one inning, an inning that could have changed our fortunes, after all we did only lose by 7 runs, a number that this team is very capable of putting up in a single inning... Even if we are having a off night!
I turned the lights on before the
game had even started and we realized that the left field was not coming on, this bothered me from the start of the game... The town should rent some portable lighting for the field until they are sure the lights are working properly. I worry about the players in the field, lighting is affected everywhere on the field when one bank of lights is out it worries me that someone might get hurt... Some of the players in this league ( Rob McCarron, Cam Clark, etc.) hit hard line drives and I would hate to see anyone get hit by a ball off the bat of these guys...The days are getting shorter and this problem has been going on all season (it's August already), let's get these fixed before someone gets hurt... 
In most of our games this season, when someone is having a rough game, the other players on the Units have picked up the slack and we have pulled through. However, in this game I think the number of guys struggling out weighed the number of guys having a good game.
There were early indications that this could be a rough night for the Hurtin' Units. The lights not all coming on was a start... Early in the game, Paul got hit in the chops (mouth area) by a ball that deflected off third base and bounced up and caught him around the mouth...Jens is playing with a pulled hamstring (a nice one with all the colours of the rainbow)... I hurt my wrist on Tuesday (on my throwing hand, really doesn't explain how I missed two ground balls hit right at me...D'oh!) and it was still sore on Thursday... The outfielders, Jens, Mike, Chris R., Tony and Jimmy Mac all had to deal with bad lighting, sure only the left field lights were out, but these lights cast lighting on the entire playing surface and when the entire field is not properly lit, this can be a problem for everyone...Al's new glove is taking a little bit longer to break in than expected, probably needs one of breaking in ways that were discussed at the Legion...Everybody has there little helpful tips... Saddle soap, glove oil, shaving cream, etc... Jerry was a bit upset with the Joints score keeping, we asked where the 7th run was and we were told to keep playing and then a runner comes home and that was the seventh, one more thing that seemed out of place on this night...
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When you really look at a 12-5 score, it doesn't seem all that bad, certainly better than say 25-5. Our bats were not as bad as the score would indicate either, we did have the bases loaded twice in the game, but just couldn't get the big hit to bring them in to score...We also hit a lot of balls into the gloves of the Joints... Looking back at our offensive output over the season, a five run game is quite low and we only have one other game when we scored as few runs, that game was back on May 18 vs. the Torn Ligaments. This game was our first loss of the season by a score of 7-5...
Boxscore:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Total
Hurtin' Units 0 5 0 0 0 0 X 5
Dislocated Joints 0 4 1 7 0 X X 12
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